BMW vs. Audi in a war of words

Last week BMW Group Australia managing director Guenther Seeman made a comment towards the German automaker Audi saying the brand from Ingolstadt is not a …

Last week BMW Group Australia managing director Guenther Seeman made a comment towards the German automaker Audi saying the brand from Ingolstadt is not a premium competitor because it doesn’t offer rear-wheel-drive cars, instead referring only to Mercedes-Benz and Lexus as his competition in the Australian market. Seemann explains that BMW has only two main competitors,

?one comes from Stuttgart and the other comes from Japan?.

Seeman also dinged Audi by suggesting it was buying market share by discounting its vehicles, and therefore violating the trust of its customers. Seeman’s counterpart at Audi Australia, Joerg Hofmann, has fired back at BMW by insinuating the Bavarian brand is just plain arrogant.

“For me, a premium product has nothing to do with the drivetrain. I think it’s even boring for the customer if you offer only one drivetrain.”

Hofmann also had a remark to make in regards to the car discounts:

” BMW has already begun offering thousands of dollars in discounts on its newly redesigned volume seller, the 3-Series.”

In Australia, the market is still “owned” by BMW, MB and Lexus, with Audi coming in the 4th place. One thing to be noticed is that the Audi sales have increased over last year by 41% compared to the BMW 4%. What do you guys think? Is there a disadvantage that Audi doesn’t offer any rear-wheel-drive cars? Does Audi has an advatange over BMW with their all-wheel-drive cars? In the end, which one would you rather buy, the A4 or BMW 335i?